Garage door sealing device



Dec. 1, 1964 .1. vI\R1.=\ :A| 1.1l 3,159,205

GARAGE: DooR sEALING DEVICE Filed oct. 1o. 1961 INVENTR.

JAMES vARAcALLl his ATTORNEY United States Patent O 3,159,205 GAMGE DOOR SEALING DEVICE .laines Varacalli, 62.1 Pittsburgh St., East Mcleesport, Ya. Filed er. 10, 1961, Ser. No. 144,161 2 Claims. (Cl. 16d- 269) This invention relates to a device for sealing vertically slidable doors of the hinged panel type, such as used in garages and parts of a building having a large opening, and, more particularly, it relates to a wedging mechanism which will yieldingly urge the top outside edge portion of the door against the door frame to prevent entry of cold air therebetween, as well as to prevent rattling of the door against the frame as a consequense of strong wind.

An outstanding disadvantage of garage doors of the overhead type, that is, comprising panels hinged together by horizontal hingesl and which are raised and guided by means of a pair of side guide rails to an overhead or open position, is the fact that when the door is closed, there is usually an undesirable clearance between the top inside portion of the door frame and the top, outside edge portion of the door, through which clearance cold l wind will pass making the garage very cold during the winter. j

An object of my invention is to provide a sealing device which will normally effect a tight seal between the top v outside edge portion of the door and the inside surface of the door frame, when the door is inthe closed position, so as to prevent an abnormal clearance therebetween through which cold air could pass into the garage.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a sealing device of such construction that it may be easily and quickly added toa conventional type door lock so as to operate in unison with the lock, becoming disengaged when the door lock is' turned to the open position, and automatically engaged when the door lock is turned to the locking position.

Other objects and advantages will become more apparent from a study of the following description taken with the accompanying drawing wherein:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a portion of an overhead type of garage door as viewed from the inside of the garage and embodying an automatic sealing device in accordance with the present invention;

FlG. 2 is a vertical, cross-sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary plan view of a portion of the door sealing device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2; and,

FlG. 4 is a vertical, cross-sectional view of the door sealing device shown in FIG. 3.

Referring more particularly to FIGS. l and 2 of the drawing, numeral 1 denotes a portion of a building wall which surrounds a door opening containing a door frame 2 and adapted tobe closed by a vertical slidable door 3, which comprises a plurality of panels hinged together by horizontally extending hinges, in a well known manner, to form an overhead type of door.

On vertically spaced portions of the door are secured brackets for mounting rollers, such as 4 and 5, extending from the inside surface of the door. These rollers are guided by track portions 4a contained within guide rails 6 of channel shaped cross section, one guide rail on each side of lthe door, so as to guide the door to a position parallel to and closely adjacent the ceiling when in the open position, in a well known manner.

The door may be locked in the closed position by a conventional type lock comprising a handle 7 for lrotat- ICC formed in the guide rails 6, whereby the end portions 10a of rods 10 serve, in effect, as latch bolts to prevent raising of the door. Lever 8 is locked in the position shown in FIG. 1 by means of a latch bolt 9a projecting from a latch bolt casing 9. When it is desired to unlock the door a thumb piece integrally secured to latch bolt 9 is pushed downwardly to retract latch bolt 9a and enable handle 7 (or 7a) to be rotated so as to withdraw ends 10a of the rods lil from the holes or keepers in guide rail 6. The structure described so far is well known in the art and, per se, forms no part'of the present invention.

in accordance with the present invention a sealing means is provided for constntly urging or pushing the top outside edge surface portion 19 of the door (see FIG. 4) against the frame 2 so as to prevent an abnormal spacing therebetween, as usually occurs in practice, and thus prevent entry of cold air or drafts through such spacing which makes the garage uncomfortable during the winter time. A wedge bolt 16 is provided, round or polygonal in cross-section, which is normally urged outwardly of the bolt casing 15, as is well known for door latch bolts and the like. The top end of wedge bolt 16 has aflat langular taper so as to correspond with the taper of a keeper 18 integral with a bracket 17 which is secured to the building by means of screws 21 or other fastening means. Vertical slots 2d are provided in the winged portion of the bracket 17 Vto permit vertical adjustment of keeper 1S. There is usually a gap of about 1/2 inch between the top edge of the door and bottom of bracket 17. The bottom edge of bracket 17 is about 1/2 inch above the bottom edge of the frame and keeper 18 is about 21/2 inch from its side, wing portions, and the bolt projects about 1/2 inch in the keeper. These dimensions are not critical.

The bottom end portion of the wedge bolt 16 has an eye 14 to which is secured an end of a cable or chain 13, or other similar flexible element, which passes through eyes 13a secured to the door for normally holding the cable in closely spaced relationship to the inner surface of the door as it is being opened or closed.

ing a latching lever 8 for the purpose of projecting links or rods 10 horizontally outwardly into corresponding holes It should be particularly noted that the purpose of the wedge bolt 16 and keeper 1S is not for locking the door, but for continually pushing the top outside edge surface 19 of the door against the inside surface of the door frame so as to prevent leakage of cold air therebetween. In other words, keeper 1S which has an angle or taper of the order of about 30 to about 45 with the vertical, will tend `to cause wedge bolt 16 to constantly move to the right, as viewed in FIG. 4, as the top inclined surface of bolt 16 engages keeper 18 under the force of the spring contained within cas-ing 15, which tends to retract wedge bolt 16 from the casing. Thus with a properly designed wedge bolt device, the top outside edge portion 19 of the door 3 will be yieldingly held tightly against the inside of door frame 2 by the action of the wedge bolt spring. As stated previously, the primary pur-pose of wedge bolt 16 and keeper 18 are to eiect a wedging or camming action for the purpose of pushing the door against the door frame when the door is in the closed position. The bottom of bracket 17 is curved and may serve as a guide for guiding the top edge of the door.

By tying the bolt 16 directly to the turning lever 8 of the door lock, the wedge bolt 16 will be retracted from its keeper 1S whenever it is desired to unlock and open the door. And when the door is in the closed and locked position, as shown in FIG. l, the wedge bolt 16 is pushed to the right as the result of yieldable camming action, so as to seal the top inside edge portion 19 of the door against the frame and thus prevent leakage of cold air therebetween. Since wedge bolt 16 is 3 not actually a locking bolt, it is entirely possible, from the outside of the door, to push the door 3 in away from the door frame (assuming that it is not otherwise locked by bars because such pushing would merely effect retraction of wedge bolt 16 from keeper 18.

In some installations, however, it may be desirable to have wedge bolt 16 serve both as a sealing means and as a lock or latch. This may be done preferably by providing a smaller angle than 45 or 30 with the vertical, or by making the spring in casing stronger. Thus the wedge bolt 16 will have a dual function of yieldingly urging the top, outside edge of the door 19 tightly against the door frame to prevent leakage of air therebetween, also to lock the door against the frame in such tightly sealed condition. The door may be unlocked from the inside by merely grasping and pulling down on cable 13, or by turning handle 7 to pull down the cable 13. in some situations it may be desired to not tie the bottom end of the cable to lever 8, in which case a ring may be secured to loop 8a to Serve as a finger piece to facilitate pulling of the cable.

In still other situations, particularly new installations, bars 10 and return springs 11 may be omitted and the Iangularity of keeper 18 may be made in the range of 45 to 0 with the vertical so that the device will act as a door sealing'mcans and lock, o-r as a lock alone. ln this instance locking bars 10 are omitted construction, it being merely desirable to prevent the outside door handle 7a from being turned unless one ha sa key. Any suitable, well known, releasing means to enable turning handle 7a from 4being turned unless one has a key. Any bolt 16 may be used, also to lock the handle 7 in the retracted position for wedge bolt 16 to keep it unlatched while the door is not locked from the outside.

Thus it will be seen that I have 4provided an eicient sealing device for normally urging the top outside edge portion of an overhead type of garage door in tight engagement with the door frame so as to prevent entry of cold air therebetween and'which, if desired, may act also as a lock, which sealing device is operated automatically in unison with a conventional door lock so as to be rendered ineffective when the door is to be opened.

While I have illustrated and described a single specic embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that this is by way of illustration only, and that various changes and modifications may be made within the contemplation of my invention and within the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In combination with a vertically sliding door, a

spring-biased bolt projecting upwardly beyond the top, inside surface of the door, said bolt having an inclined top end forming an angle within the range of 30 to 45 with the Vertical, a keeper having an inclination corresponding to said top end and spaced inwardly from the inside surface of said frame to effect a camming action with said spring-biased bolt so as to push the top, outside edge surface of the door toward said frame to reduce the normal air gap therebetween, a exible string-like element depending from thebottom of said bolt, and means connected to said string-like element for locking said door without preventing partial retraction of said springabiased bolt from said keeper and whereby unlocking of said door will effect tension on said string-like element and complete retraction of said spring-biased bolt from said keeper.

2. In combination with a vertically sliding door, a spring-biased bolt projecting upwardly beyond the top, inside surface of the door, said bolt having an inclined top end forming an angle Within the range of 30 to 45 with the vertical, a keeper having an inclination corresponding to said top end and spaced inwardly from the inside surface of said frame to effect a camming action with said spring-biased bolt so as to push the top, outside edge surface of the door toward said frame to reduce the normal air gap therebetween, slot means in said keeper for adjusting the distance thereof from the top of the door and guide means extending along lthe sides of said frame for vertically guiding said door, substantially horizontally extending locking bars, a pivotally mounted locking lever adapted to proiect the outer ends of said bars into said guide means to prevent raising of said door, a string-like element having a top end portion connected to said bolt, a latch for latching said locking lever against rotation, the bottom end portion of said string-like element being secured to said locking lever in a manner so that unlocking of said door will elect retraction `of said bolt from said keeper.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 596,050 12/97 Byrnes 292-36 1,310,840 7/19 Robertson 292--2 1,552,690 9/25 Frantz 292-33 2,124,970 7/38 BagleyA 292-40 2,185,503 1/40 Fryer 292-341.18 2,403,182 7/46 Leary et al. 292-341.18 2,453,554 11/48 Thomas 160-201 M. HENSQN WOGD, IR., Primary Examiner. 

1. IN COMBINATION WITH A VERTICALLY SLIDING DOOR, A SPRING-BASED BOLT PROJECTING UPWARDLY BEYOND THE TOP, INSIDE SURFACE OF THE DOOR, SAID BOLT HAVING AN INCLINED TOP END FORMING AN ANGLE WITHIN THE RANGE OF 30* TO 45* WITH THE VERTICAL, A KEEPER HAVING AN INCLINATION CORRESPONDING TO SAID TOP END AND SPACED INWARDLY FROM THE INSIDE SURFACE OF SAID FRAME TO EFFECT A CAMMING ACTION WITH SAID SPRING-BIASED BOLT SO AS TO PUSH THE TOP, OUTSIDE EDGE SURFACE OF THE DOOR TOWARD SAID FRAME TO REDUCE THE NORMAL AIR GAP THEREBETWEEN, A FLEXIBLE 